As former global director of interactive media at the Independent News and Media Group, Richard Withey has been at the forefront of digital developments in the publishing world. Communicate taps into his 30 years experience designing, building and delivering digital information and publishing systems, and discovers he has still has some faith in the medium of print.

When did changes begin to appear in the print media landscape, and where are we now?
In the UK and US, there has been a slow but steady decline in print circulation since the 1950’s, but it was only when the web arrived in 1993 that some of us began to see that the impact of digital users on newspapers could be significant. However the real changes have come this century, in the rise of community online journalism and blogs, ubiquitous Broadband access, mobile access, digital aggregators (particularly Google), and the arrival in the workplace of a the first generation who went through their secondary and higher education levels with access to the Web built-in. In other parts of the world, including the Middle East, this process hasn't really started in earnest yet, but it will.

How is print media coping with the changes?
Badly. They over-invested too early, then withdrew from the market after the dotcom crash and have been playing catch-up ever since. The inherent culture of print journalism (we tell you what's important) and their management (newspapers are perfect inventions for advertising) do not help at all, and we need a whole new generation in newspapers to make it work.

Does the rise of digital necessarily mean the fall of print?
No. Even in the most developed Internet economies about a third of the market doesn't use the web, and print journalists work to much higher standards of truth and veracity than online ones do. There is still a role for print, but not on the scale we have now, and the main income streams will be digital. Margins will be much, much lower.

How is editorial content affected?
There are already fewer print tiles available in the US as a direct consequence of the shift to digital, and this will be echoed in most countries that support a large press. We must all guard against the impact this could have on press freedom in countries where this is a key attribute of printed newspapers, and there is a debate going on in the US and UK about how and whether to provide support for unbiased print commentary and reporting.

How is advertising affected?
Classified works better on the Web because it's largely a one-to-one transaction (why print 500,000 copies of a newspaper when a database can do it much better?). The loss of classified revenue will seriously affect or kill revenues for many titles, as they are currently not enjoying much market share in the online market (Google dominate this). For display it's harder to say. The worst and most discernible effect so far is that the Web is deflationary for advertising margins in a big way. It's this change in business models that will endanger print publishers, not whether the user preference is for one medium or another.

Is print re-positioning itself to suit the changed landscape?
Print owners are hampered by their investments: large teams of journalists, printing presses, expensive distribution methods etc. It's hard to compete with both hands tied behind your back. What most fail to realize is that they are still the only groups who can reach all markets, and they haven't capitalized on that. Nor have they used the Internet to reduce their production and distribution costs. The ones who survive will have to do this. Meanwhile there will be super-consolidation, and in the UK (for example) this will require changes in competition legislation.

Are integrated offerings (print newspaper, Web site, radio channel, TV channel) the way forward?
Yes, but the threat to publishers is that it's the user who integrates, not the publisher. In those countries that don't have ubiquitous broadband or mobile access to content yet, the publishers still can and should set the agenda for what's available and how it's delivered. I'm afraid this means understanding the importance of search – and I've yet to meet (in over 20 years in the industry) more than a handful of newspaper executives who do.

You have been to the UAE recently, what do you think of the print media landscape here, and how do you think it's coping?
It's all to play for: young population demographics, language and cultural understandings, the potential for unwired mobile-driven economies. However the impetus to succeed in the digital space has to come from the top downwards. If it's driven from the bottom upwards (i.e. the users) then new, more digitally literate companies will fill the need.

Richard Withey is a digital media consultant, and the former global director of interactive media at the Independent News & Media Group.
 

Come together
Newsrooms in the region are adapting to the demands of a new, integrated industry. They are streamlining themselves for speed and versatility, as well as cost and efficiency. The result is the convergent newsroom. Two regional advocates tell Communicate how their systems work

Mohammed Al Rumaihi, editor-in-chief, Awan newspaper, Kuwait
“We started with the convergent newsroom in 2007, I think we were the first in the Arab region. It’s an open space, which branches out into different sections. We have 15 minute meetings everyday at noon to discuss what needs to be done and what stories we have. Also every day, at the end of each meeting, one person has to tell a joke, because discussions can get pretty heated.
The importance in this kind of work is communications. So with convergent newsrooms, people can communicate directly. There was some resistance from people who wanted privacy at first, but they got used to it.”

Martin Newland, editor-in-chief, The National
“If you came to the newsroom, you would see a hub model which I stole from The Telegraph. There’s a round table, which is the hub – everyone meets there. And there are the spokes of every department that come off it like a wheel. Everything is open; there are three private offices on this entire floor, one of them is mine. But most of the time I sit outside at the hub.  It drives some people nuts because they want privacy, but you get a common intent.”